16/05/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

By BlockEx

1. Consensus Panellists Driven Out of New York by Bitlicense

Jesse Powell, the CEO of Kraken, and Erik Voorhees, the CEO of Shapeshift, discussed how they had been driven out of New York by the regulatory overreach of the Bitlicense. Voorhees complained that: “Here we are two miles from the Statue of Liberty and you cannot sell CryptoKitties in the state without that license. That’s the absurdity of what’s happened here”. Powell thinks the US “has really failed” by letting this be regulated at a state rather than national level. He pointed to the clarity that national Virtual Currency Act had brought the industry in Japan, and the crypto business boom this has brought. however, both pointed out that crypto businesses tend to be highyl mobile, not linked to any one location. Users can also use workarounds like VPNs to access services that may not legally be available to them.

Bitcoin had a minor price rally from Saturday, but that has now unravelled. It now risks falling below the $8,000 mark. Bitcoin has now dipped below the 50 day moving average. Traditionally, the Consensus conference in New York, one of the biggest in the industry, has seen cryptocurrencies rally, but that does not seem to be the case so far this week.